What is the tree of life?
The tree of life shows how all life on earth is related. Each leaf represents a different species. The branches show how these many species evolved from common ancestors over billions of years. In our interactive tree of life you can explore the relationships between 2,235,076 species and wonder at 105,414 images on a single zoomable page.
- 2,235,076 species
- 105,414 images
Biodiversity and Conservation...
We want to help everyone appreciate biodiversity and the need to conserve it.
Red leaves on our tree of life show species known to be under threat of extinction.
Green leaves are either okay for now but might be nearly threatened.
Most leaves are grey meaning that it's not known how threatened they are.
What they say...
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OneZoom is a brilliant, interactive tool for understanding the scope and scale of the tree of life, including highlights for conservation priorities.
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This project has enormous potential both as a tool for increasing public knowledge and engagement but also as an aid to research in Conservation and Biodiversity.
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I often use OneZoom in my class, the students love it.
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…simply the most useful tool for understanding phylogenetic and evolutionary relationships.
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OneZoom really helps get my mind around the complexities of the tree of life.
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I wanted to congratulate the OneZoom team on the amazing interface and reference resource that is OneZoom. Amazing job!
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OneZoom is one of the most fascinating visualization projects I've seen in years!
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In my opinion, it is the best visualisation of evolution that's out there for the lay person.
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Your tree is the best thing to ever happen to evolutionary education. Keep up the amazing work.
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This will revolutionize how we teach and understand the Tree of Life. It is an invaluable tool for communicating the grand scope of life's history.
Become a sponsor...
OneZoom is a registered non-profit in the UK, all our products are available for free. 852 people like you have helped us by making donations. Their names have appeared as sponsors on 1508 leaves of our tree of life leaves of our tree of life.
Only one name per leaf so get your favourite while you can, for yourself or as a gift.
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Chili pepper
(Capsicum annuum)Sponsored forRATIO, Bulgaria — Thank you from James -
Capybara
(Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)Sponsored byKathryn Stanton Diaz — And her great family! -
Flapjack octopus
(Opisthoteuthis californiana)Sponsored byBobbi Lynn Monroe -
Common green darner
(Anax junius)Sponsored forFreyja Jonsson — Seattle, USA -
Rainbow lorikeet
(Trichoglossus haematodus)Sponsored byLori Dair -
Marbled murrelet
(Brachyramphus marmoratus)Sponsored byNathan Borson — Icy Strait, Alaska -
Stony coral
(Porites lobata)Sponsored forDr. Kaho Hoshino Tisthammer — Kewalo Marine Lab -
Naked hanging man
(Orchis simia)Sponsored forErik Danielsson — Bagarmossen, Stockholm, Sweden -
Disc mayweed
(Matricaria discoidea)Sponsored byDaniel Lundin — Bagarmossen, Stockholm, Sweden -
Germander speedwell
(Veronica chamaedrys)Sponsored forKerstin Lundin — Björkhagen, Stockholm, Sweden -
Fireweed
(Chamaenerion angustifolium)Sponsored forEnrico Lundin — Björkhagen, Stockholm, Sweden -
Northern hedgehog
(Erinaceus europaeus)Sponsored forMina Mincheva Rosindell — visitors of her garden -
European edible abalone
(Haliotis tuberculata)Sponsored forBrian G de Carteret — in Guernsey 2017 -
Adelie penguin
(Pygoscelis adeliae)Sponsored forDaisy Stanley — from Jill, Owen and James -
Cultivated mushroom
(Agaricus bisporus)Sponsored byMike Graham — For Debbie -
Monkey-puzzle
(Araucaria araucana)Sponsored byJonathan Drori -
Split leaf philodendron
(Philodendron bipinnatifidum)Sponsored byJonathan Drori -
Madagascar palm
(Pachypodium lamerei)Sponsored byJonathan Drori -
Baobab
(Adansonia digitata)Sponsored byJonathan Drori -
Lebanon cedar
(Cedrus libani)Sponsored byJonathan Drori
What we've been up to...
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29 September 2022
Donors can now renew their support of sponsored leaves. Sponsorships are only for a four year period, however those who do not renew will remain on our tree of life for the time being. Donors will get an e-mail reminder before their sponsored leaves expire. -
22 May 2022
Thank you to On The Edge for funding our latest project: tree tours. We will bring you a collection of guided tours around our tree of life explorer. These tree tours will take you to particularly interesting parts of the tree and give you more information about evolution, biodiversity and conservation as you go. You will be able to sit back and enjoy the tree tour, or hop off and explore freely around any of the tour stops.
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6 February 2022
OneZoom version 3.6 (nickname: musical_furry_lobster) has been officially released. We now show species occurrence (distribution) maps in the popup tabs when clicking on a species, and have instructions for how to run a bespoke OneZoom version with your own images instead of, or as well as, our own pictures. There are also a few minor changes to the tree, with a more recent arrangement of the first few (archaeal) branches, and the addition of the dodo! -
14 December 2021
Announcing the publication of ‘Dynamic visualisation of million-tip trees: The OneZoom project’ out today in Methods in Ecology and Evolution. This publication accompanies OneZoom version 3.5 'Chocolate chip starfish' and explains a lot of the science behind the OneZoom project.